Derrick fastened the last bandage around Selina’s injured feet and placed them gently on the settee, elevated on a pillow. She hadn’t said much as he tended to her
She hadn’t said anything much at all, but it was clear her thoughts were dark and uncertain.
“I’m sorry about Vale,” he said at last.
Her face twitched, pain and sadness and anger mixing there. “I was a fool not to see the worst in her,” she said. “I had been alone for so long when she came into my life. I suppose I just wanted to believe the best. Perhaps she’s right; that is my greatest failing.”
“A failing of hers, not yours,” Derrick said, stroking her calf through her dress.
“Was,” Selina whispered.
“Was,” he repeated. Then he swallowed. “You were going to take a bullet for my friend.”
She nodded. “Yes. I couldn’t let him die to protect me, a criminal. That wouldn’t be right. But my brother saved us all. You saved me. But now we’re here and the end has come, Derrick. We both know what will happen when Barber and Robert arrive.”
“Do you?” Barber said as he opened the door to the chamber and the two men entered. They both looked drawn and worn out from the experience hours before. Robert, especially.
“Please tell me that you’re unharmed,” Selina said, reaching a hand toward her brother. “Please tell me they won’t do anything to you for saving my life and the life of Mr. Barber.”
“Shhh,” Robert soothed her as he leaned in to kiss her forehead. “I’m fine. Barber took care of it all. You needn’t worry about me.” He faced Barber. “I appreciate all you’ve done. But I suppose we all have the same question now. What will you do about Selina?”
Barber shook his head and paced to the window. He stood there for a while, as if gathering his thoughts. Then he turned back.
“Like you, Miss Oliver, my life has always revolved around a code,” he said softly. “I come from a family of merchants. There was struggle, but always enormous honor, and that has been important to me. Normally, the right answer is easy to find. Good is very different from evil. But you…you, Miss Oliver, are a conundrum.”
“Frustrating, I think Derrick calls it,” Selina said, and that elicited a small smile from Barber. Derrick’s heart leapt to see it. His friend didn’t offer those smiles often, and never just to anyone.
“You are that,” Barber agreed. His gaze slipped to Derrick. “You have been my good friend and partner. The best I’ve ever had. So now what is right? What is good? What is honorable? Do I destroy your life? Do I destroy hers? Do I honor the contract I signed with a bunch of—excuse me, Your Grace—fops?”
“I couldn’t tell you what to do,” Derrick said softly. “Because I am, as you have told me many times, compromised. By my love for her. By my hopes for the future. I’m compromised.”
“Yes,” Barber said, almost too low to be heard.
He turned his back to all of them again. And again, time seemed to tick by at half-speed. They were waiting for a guillotine and it was torture.
At least Barber spoke. “Perhaps it turns out Miss Williams was culpable for all this in the end.”
“What?” Derrick gasped, at the exact time Selina and Robert said the same.
Barber faced them. “Ah, a chorus, I see. My goal in this was to determine the guilty party. Miss Williams seems to be the guiltiest, what with murder on her mind. My goal was also to return any items I could recover. Miss Oliver, are there items still in your possession?”
She nodded. “Many in my home in London. I’ll return them to you upon our arrival. I have no need for them.”
“Then I will have fulfilled my second goal.”
“But you intended to catch the Faceless Fox,” Selina said. “Will you hate yourself for not doing that?”
Barber moved toward her. “The Faceless Fox was never violent. She stole from the worst of Society. And she tried to sacrifice herself to save my life tonight, without hesitation, even knowing that I was sworn to destroy her hopes and dreams.” He touched her hand briefly. “And you and my friend are in love. So maybe that matters more than all the rest put together.”
“Barber,” Derrick breathed.
Barber smiled at him. “I am remanding Miss Oliver to your custody, Huntington. Do try to keep her out of trouble.”
Derrick rushed to his friend and tugged him into a hug. It obviously surprised Barber, but he returned the gesture briefly before he stepped away. He cleared his throat. “I must go finish the final matters to do with tonight. I’ll see you all later.”
He left them, and Selina stared up at Derrick, shock lining her face. “Did he just…did he just let me go?”
“He did,” Derrick breathed as a powerful, unstoppable joy tore through his chest. “You’re free.”
